Madden Ultimate Team ‘pack strike’ goes viral as influencers walk out

There are thousands of Madden NFL 23 Ultimate Team players have declared a “Pack Strike” on social media. The game’s biggest influencers say they’re forgoing buying premium currency for the game’s microtransaction mode until changes are made to the odds on drawing desirable items from Ultimate Team’s loot boxes, as well as Madden’s gameplay overall.

With the tweet below from Zirksee, a Madden influencer, #PACKSTRIKE started Tuesday. They say Madden Ultimate Team gamblers aren’t getting reasonable value out of the game’s more expensive bundles, or by “re-rolling” cards, where players toss the less desirable items they draw and try to get a better card.

So far, thousands of Madden NFL Ultimate Team devotees have pledged solidarity with the microtransaction strike, despite the hit they’re taking to their team’s performance by vowing not to buy better players out of the mode’s open market.

Madden NFL 23 launched Aug. 19. In our review, we said that, down-by-down, the game performed “almost flawlessly,” particularly as it applied to the running game and its blocking assignments. But the larger context of its Ultimate Team and Franchise modes is “where the game most often stumbles.” A month after launch, many players are discovering the game’s larger, and weaker, scaffolding, and they’ve decided they’re not going to stick with it through the rest of the NFL season.